The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that the Toronto Star is revamping its Sunday paper but has decided not to make it a tabloid.

Star editor-in-chief Giles Gherson said that while the paper considered a tabloid size for the revamped Sunday paper, it rejected the idea. Instead it will convert to a magazine-style broadsheet with better use of graphics and colour than the existing format, which currently looks similar to the news-heavy weekday and Saturday papers. "It's going to be kind of a magazine style with a broadsheet format," Mr. Gherson said. "The feel and the tone of it and the sensibility of it will be very much like a magazine."

The Sunday paper will still make room for breaking news but will now concentrate on feature material. The Sunday edition will also function as a test ground for features or formats that could be shifted to the weekday or Saturday papers, he added.

Most of the story, however, is spent worrying if the National Post's new publisher Les Pyette is turning that paper into a tabloid in spirit, if not in physical form. "All I did was get them to put a bigger headline on the main story," Pyette says. But! The mighty Globe and Mail (motto: "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." Zzzzzzzzzz) will not let such obvious misdirection stand!

Newspaper observers say, however, that the huge new headlines, "cheeky" wording, and sometimes massive photographs that have appeared in the Post in the past 10 days give the impression of a tabloid sensibility emerging at the paper, even while it keeps its broadsheet size.

Well. Who these "observers" are is left up to our imagination. And any evidence beyond big headlines we also, apparently, have to come up with on our own. Anyways, judge for yourself. Here are a couple National Posts from October, followed by the last six days.

Sure, bigger heds and the shorter, punchier words that bigger heds require. Big whoop. Not quite what the scandalized G&M calls "huge" and "screaming." About 40-45 percent bigger than those October heds, but you need more heft when you banner a hed in a broadsheet. (And those heds are still smaller than they've used in the past on big news days) Promos under the flag are a bit deeper. Photos don't really look any bigger, though. The Post has always given good size to their A1 photos.

So I don't know about you hosers, but I don't see much smoke there, eh?

>Star, Post tweak designs [The Globe and Mail]